Panel wants openly gay guardsman discharged

Military

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Photo: David Paul Morris, Getty Images

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JUNE 28: Celebrity Grand Marshals Lt. Dan Choi, a graduate of West Point and Actress Cloris Leachman takes part in the 39th annual gay pride parade June 28, 2009 in San Francisco, California. The parade drew hundreds of thousands of people to downtown San Francisco to celebrate gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender pride. (Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images) less

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JUNE 28: Celebrity Grand Marshals Lt. Dan Choi, a graduate of West Point and Actress Cloris Leachman takes part in the 39th annual gay pride parade June 28, 2009 in San Francisco, ... more

Photo: David Paul Morris, Getty Images

Panel wants openly gay guardsman discharged

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A military review panel recommended Tuesday that National Guard Lt. Dan Choi, the gay Arabic translator who became a national figure in fighting the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy after declaring his sexuality on television, be discharged from the service.

It's recommendation that the Army no longer recognize Choi as an officer must be approved by the First Army commander and the chief of the National Guard Bureau before Choi would be discharged.

Choi's attorney, Maj. Roy Diehl, said the process could take weeks or up to a year. For now, Diehl said Choi, who was a grand marshal in Sunday's Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, will "continue drilling" with his New York National Guard unit.

Tuesday's decision was especially painful to gay leaders after watching President Obama preach patience Monday at a ceremony commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots that are considered the birth of the modern gay rights movement.

"I know that every day that passes without a resolution is a deep disappointment to those men and women who continue to be discharged under this policy - patriots who often possess critical language skills and years of training and who've served this country well," Obama said Monday.

He had continually pledged to overturn the law as a candidate.

"But what I hope is that these cases underscore the urgency of reversing this policy not just because it's the right thing to do but because it is essential for our national security," Obama said.

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Pentagon lawyers are trying to make the law more flexible until it is changed.

"And the issue that we face is, how do we begin to do preparations and, simultaneously, the administration move forward in asking the Congress to change the law?" Gates said.

Obama has said he wants Congress to overturn the law; congressional leaders have said that they are waiting for the president to take the lead; and military leaders say they won't change the policy unless directed by Congress.

"It's a hot-potato party," said Nathaniel Frank, a research fellow at the Palm Center, a UC Santa Barbara think tank. "Democrats have the mistaken impression that if they lead on something that smells like a culture war issue - or if they go against the military - they will get pounded. But that's not true. Public opinion is with them."

Last month, a Gallup Poll found that 69 percent of Americans would "favor allowing openly gay men and lesbian women to serve in the military" - up six percentage points from November 2004. The survey found that 58 percent of conservatives and 60 percent of weekly churchgoers felt the same way.

The Obama administration doesn't want to repeat the mistakes of the Clinton administration, which took a major political beating when it tried to fulfill its campaign promise of overturning the gays-in-the-military ban shortly after Bill Clinton took office in 1993, political analysts say. That year, 44 percent of respondents to a Washington Post-ABC News poll said those who are openly gay should be allowed to serve in the military.

Choi became a national spokesman for gay rights when he said "I am gay" on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show in March. At Tuesday's hearing, he presented 150 letters and more than 250,000 signatures on a petition supporting him.